Welcome! I've been playing with a couple of new stamp sets--love these! I don't often order stamps, simply because I have more than I have time to play with already. Once in a while though, I see a set that I just plain need--at least I think I do! When I saw the Nordic Winter and Holiday Ornaments sets from Waltzingmouse Stamps, they reminded me of my niece's sweaters, a perfect and sweet Christmas pattern.
The background set, Nordic Winter, is a great building set--long acrylic stamp strips that you can either repeat or alternate to build your own desired pattern. I didn't plan ahead on this; I merely stamped several different strips, then used my Genesis Trimmer with an edge light to cut them apart. Now, I don't usually explain my tools; but since Christmas is coming, I thought I would share some of my favorite tools, just in case you find yourself in need of something similar. (I'm starting a new post category called Tool Tidbits.)
I have several trimmers, each for different jobs. But the one that I use the most is my Genesis Trimmer that I purchased a few months back from Bonnie's Best Art Tools. If you like to cut stacks of cardstock at one time, this is probably not the tool for the job. However, if you generally cut one piece of cardstock at a time but want it cut perfectly, this might be just the tool for you. I don't use the edge light all of the time, but when I need to see through something, it comes in quite handy. Patterned papers, stamped papers, lighter colored cardstocks, or lighter weight cardstocks--the edge light shines through those. Darker, heavier cardstocks--not so much. FYI, I do not work for Bonnie; I just like her trimmer!
After I cut my strips apart, I arranged and rearranged them until I was happy with them, then lightly tacked them to red cardstock so that I could stitch the seams between patterns. Speaking of stitching, my old sewing machine died last week and I bought a new one. I'll tell you about it another day after I get more accustomed to using it.
The ornaments in the Holiday Ornaments set coordinate with the Spellbinders 2011 Heirloom Ornament die template set, which makes it super simple to get a perfect cut on those ornaments! I used metallic string (purchased from Stampin' Up several years ago) to "hang" each ornament, mounting them on foam tape. I used Copic Various inks in R29 and R37 to dye my white seam binding to coordinate with the Pure Poppy ink that I had stamped with. So, that's it--one Nordic sweater card, done! Thanks for stopping by.
